HERE AND THERE.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 65, 28 November 1911, Page 3

HERE AND THERE.

According to the Journal of the Department of Agriculture the directors of the livestock and meat division has communicated with the veterinary officer of the Government in Britain asking for particulars of any Holstein herds established in England, with the object of giving breeders in New Zealand an opportunity of#becoming acquainted with all pos-

siblc source of supply, in view of the difficulties in the way of importing cattle from Hoi iand,owing to the extensive prevalence of loot and mouth disease in that country.

"1 have no faith in Royal Commissions," said Mr D. McLaren, M.P., speaking in Wellington, when referring to the Government's intention to set up a Royal Commission for the purpose of inquiring into the causes ( pf. the increased cost of living. " They are useless institutions, without permanency and stability. Take the timber Commission as a case in point. It took that Commission many weeks, and cost the country a large sum of money, to discover the all important fact that timber consists chiefly of wood."

A civil case at the Te Kuiti Court recently ended in the Bench (Mr F. Loughnan, S.M., and Mr C. B. Cornish, j. P.), directing the police to take criminal action against defendant. The case was one of £ll 5s for balance of wages by William Jones, painter, against John Carr, builder. Defendant produced a document signed by Jones acknowledging receipt on the 14th August oi wages "in full." Jones stated that when he signed the receipt the words "in full" were not, and the Bench stated the opinion that the words had afterwards been written in by Carr. His Worship directed that the document be impounded and the police lay a charge of forgery against Carr. On the claim the Bench, found for plaintiff for £8 ss.

"Whatever may be the faults of ignorance or wilfulness in this country, from a statistical point of view it would appear that far better conditions are obtained than elsewhere," states the Government statistician in comparing the infant mortality of New Zealand'.with that of other countries. Taking as a basis the number of deaths of children Under one year per thousand births, he shows New Zealand, with 62, is (with the exception of South Australia, 61) able to boast the lowest infantile death rate in the world. The Australian States show a much better average than any of the European countries. Norway is best of the latter, with 76 deaths per 1000 births, while the average for England and Wales is lOQ, and Scotland 121.